Mayflower Church Organ Restoration

The
organ at Mayflower Church was originally built as Tellers Organ
Company's magnum opus No. 1054 in 1968. Due to increasing problems with
the original electro-pneumatic windchests, relay systems and console, a
major rebuilding was deemed necessary. The rebuilding would also
provide a good opportunity to make tonal improvements to the instrument
and to augment the instrument's size and capability.

The
first step was to eliminate the sluggish pneumatic relays and rebuild
the windchests. Most of the Tellers windchests were retained and
converted to electro-mechanical action. A completely new Positiv
windchest was build to accommodate a better layout of stops. A new
windchest was installed for the for the flute stops of the Great
division. All of the windchests are controlled by solid-state relay
systems manufactured by Lauck Pipe Organ Company.

Tonally, the
organ has several additional ranks of pipes, plus several extensions,
increasing the size of the instrument to 94 ranks. Of interest is the
addition of a 16' series of pitches to the great organ (16' Violone, 5
1/3' Grosse Quinte and 3 1/5 Grosse Tierce plus a 16' Double Trumpet, 8'
Trumpet, and 4' Clarion). An 8' Harmonic Flute was added to the Great
and the Great Fourniture Mixture was relocated from the facade to the
main chest. The Pedal Mixture was also moved from the facade to the
chamber. The Pedal 32' Untersatz, which originally stopped at low FFFF,
was extended all the way to low CCCC with new pipework. In the Swell, a
second Mixture was added, as well as a pair of 4' Strings. In the
Gallery organ, an 8' Principal Celeste was installed. The Celestial
Strings, Vox Humana and the Choir Cromorne were relocated from a 1930
Casavant Organ. The Choir Cor Anglais was built by A.R. Schopp's Sons,
Inc. Extensive revoicing and tonal finishing was done to create a
well-balanced ensemble, while still retaining the integrity of the
original Tellers Organ.

A new console has been built for
the organ. The design of the console reflects the Georgian colonial
architecture of Mayflower Church. It was completed by Craig Manor, with
the assistance of Chris Cole and James Lauck. Mr. Manor produced
drawings for the console's construction, as well as the five handmade
keyboards which feature bone-capped naturals and ebony sharps. The
console is made of tulip poplar (finished white) with Hondoras mahogany
trim. The drawknobs and pedal sharps are of ebony. The console has
hermetically sealed magnetic reed switches for all key contacts, to keep
out dirt and eliminate corrosion. The Lauck coupler system is
completely solid-state. The console has 99-memory levels of combination
action and a record/playback system with full MIDI by Peterson.